Search Worlds Without End

Kane. An immortal, cursed to wander the Earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. A warrior and statesman: As comfortable in the shadowy halls of courtly intrigue as he is on the bloody battlefields where those intrigue's inevitably play themselves out. Karl Edward Wagner's complex and compelling character of Kane redefines the boundaries of heroic fantasy, and stands besides Michael Moorcock's Elric, and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser as one of the most idiosyncratic and compelling characters of the fantasy genre. Gods in Darkness gathers together in one volume the complete novels of Kane

Edited by Stephen Jones.

Midnight Sun is the companion volume to Gods in Darkness, and collects all of the Kane short stories and poetry.

Contents:

• Death Angel's Shadow (poem)
• Undertow
• Two Suns Setting
• The Dark Muse
• Sing a Last Song of Valdese
• Misericorde
• Lynortis Reprise
• Raven's Eyrie
• In the Lair of Yslsl
• Reflections for the Winter of My Soul
• Cold Light
• Mirage
• The Other One
• The Gothic Touch
  
• Midnight Sun (poem)
• Lacunae
• Deep in the Depths of the Acme Warehouse
• At First Just Ghostly
• The Treasure of Lynortis (early version of Lynortis Reprise)
• In the Wake of the Night (lost novel fragment)
• The Once and Future Kane (non-fiction essay)

Where once the mighty Kane has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trail of past battles, Kane travels again. To the ruins of a devastated city peopled only with half-men and the waif they call their queen. To the half-burnt tavern where a woman Kane wronged long ago holds his child in keeping for the Devil. To the cave kingdom of the giants where glory and its aftermath await discovery. To the house of death itself where Kane retrieves a woman in love.

The past, the future, the present - all these are one for Kane as he travels through the centuries.

Table of Contents:

• "Undertow"
• "Two Suns Setting"
• "The Dark Muse"
• "Raven's Eyrie"
• "Lynortis Reprise"
• "Sing a Last Song of Valdese"

BFA winning and WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Fantastic, May 1976. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3 (1977), edited by Lin Carter, and The World Fantasy Awards, Volume Two (1980), edited by Stuart David Schiff and Fritz Leiber. It is included in the collections Night Winds (1978) and Midnight Sun: The Complete Stories of Kane (2003).

Kane - indestructible swordsman, invincible sorcerer, immortal wanderer through strange worlds. Efrel, Empress of Pellin, seeks vengeance on the King of Thovnos and chooses Kane as her champion.

Kane. The Mystic Swordsman becomes the living link with the awesome power of a vanished superrace. In the dark swamp where toadmen croak and cower, slumbers a secret relic of the days when creatures from the stars ruled the Earth. In the booty captured in a savage raid, Kane discovers a ring, a bloodstone, which is key to the power that lies buried, inactive but not dead, within the forest. Now Kane, whose bloody sword has slashed and killed for the glory of other rulers, can scheme to rule the Earth - himself!

When a man proves himself to be more than human and a devotee of your dark god type he quickly develops a following with fervour.

After some initial military success he has his rabble smashed by a trained opposition. Kane sees an opportunity and volunteers his military mind to whip the bunch of crazies into shape. Kane has to see if he can stick around long enough given said bloke's delusions of competency for himself and followers.